The Great Catch
Our text this morning will begin in Luke 5:1. I never understood fishing. I get some people make a living at it but as a hobby it seems weird to me because it requires something that I don’t have a lot of: patience. The idea of just sitting around for hours waiting to maybe catch a fish is maybe big enough to keep and cook just seems impractical to me. I remember going fishing with my dad when I was younger and I didn’t really have a lot of patience for it. Having tossed my line out into the water and waited all of a sudden there was a pull. I got really excited. I grabbed the rod and began to struggle reeling it in. After an intense battle I pulled out of the water an enormous…shoe. Soggy, wet, and gross. That was it for me. Some people just aren’t cut out to be fishermen.
Lk 5:1 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, Lk 5:2 he saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets.
Jesus has been ministering and healing people for some time now. He has been to His home town, He has cast out an evil spirit from a man and now He begins traveling around Judea preaching.
Here His teaching takes Him to the Lake of Gennesaret or you might better know it as the Sea of Galilee. It is actually not a sea it is an enormous lake that runs twelve miles north to south and seven miles across. It sits over 650 feet below sea level and is surrounded by a barrier of hills that are a thousand feet tall. This lake is extremely fertile with fish making it a popular fishing location. What is really cool about this is that the Sea of Galilee is still a popular fishing spot today. You can go there and see this lake and all the people fishing there because the Bible is not a book of philosophy it is a book of history. We can go where Jesus walked. We can stand where Jesus stood and see the places Jesus saw.
When Jesus arrives at the Sea of Galilee He sees some men tending to their nets. This tells us it is the end of their day and they are done working. They have had a long and unproductive night and now they get to enjoy the really fun part of cleaning their equipment. My brother-in-law cleans airplanes. Scrubbing, washing, removing trash I cant imagine that job is fun for long. But after a long day the benefit is he gets paid for it. The frustrating thing for these fishermen is that they have to clean their nets even if they don’t catch anything.
After a long night they are tired, sore, frustrated, and more than anything they probably just want to go home and rest. They entire night was a waste they worked themselves to the bone and have nothing to show for it. So it is probably fair to say that they are not in the best of moods. Before they can go home they have to clean out pebbles, grass, sand, and various others things that get caught in the rope of their nets. They also have to repair any tears in the strands after a long night of heavy use.
When Jesus finds them he sees Peter and Andrew first. They are using a type of net called an amphiblestron which is a small net that you would cast into the water and it would sink down and when you pulled it up it would capture anything in its path. This small net was not the typical net used for fishing. While James and John are tending to the larger nets Peter and Andrew are throwing the smaller net in shallow water trying to catch something, anything to redeem an unproductive night. This is their last ditch effort to keep all the hard work from being a total waste. Then Jesus shows up.
Lk 5:3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. Lk 5:4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” Lk 5:5 Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” Lk 5:6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. Lk 5:7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
Now Jesus has earned Himself a big reputation and has become a real tourist attraction. Jesus is a popular teacher already and He is being mobbed as if He was Brad Pitt at a women’s retreat. Crowds start to swarm around Jesus wanting to hear Him preach but because they have gathered so close only the people in the first few rows would be able to hear Him. So He asks Peter to push off a short distance so He can teach from Peter’s boat. See water serves as a natural amplifier. He goes out onto the boat so when He preaches the whole crowd will be able to hear Him.
Jesus preaches His sermon and then He turns to Peter and tells him to go out to the deep waters and to let his net down. Peter is tired. He has been working unproductively all night. You know he is frustrated and just ready to go home. The last thing he wants to do right now is go back out onto the lake and waste more time catching a lot of nothing. Peter is not on vacation here with a rod and reel just relaxing by the river, this is his job. He has been working all night. His boat is heavy, the nets are large. As if that wasn’t enough Peter had just finished cleaning the nets, now Jesus says ok get them dirty again.
Remember Jesus is not a fisherman. As a professional Peter knows the best fishing was done in shallow water, not in the deep of the lake. A professional fisherman would know that there are certain places on the lake that fish go depending on what time of day it is. Their job is to know where the fish will be and their livelihood depends on it. Peter is a fisherman maybe from a long line of fishermen. Jesus idea is cute and all, but it is wrong time and wrong place. Peter knows this will be a huge waste of time.
Have you ever noticed that it is harder to trust God in areas that you have expertise? It is a real challenge to trust God when we know we are good at something. Sure He is God and He knows everything but you know, He is not mechanic. Why is it easier for us to trust ourselves than it is for us to trust God? Do we really think we have greater expertise than He does? What Jesus asks Peter to do doesn’t make sense. Sometimes God asks us to do things that don’t make sense simply to show us that He is God.
Skeptical but obediently Peter tosses the nets out and discovers that he was in for some trouble. They nets were so full that he couldn’t pull them in on his own. There are so many fish in his net that the entire boat begins to sink.
Peter signals and James and John bring the other boat over and help him. They grab the other end of the nets but by the time they haul in all the fish both boats are overloaded. There are so many fish they are not just sinking one boat they are sinking two. They received almost too much blessing to handle. Peter got to experience the real power of God because he didn’t make excuses, he obeyed.
Lk 5:8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” Lk 5:9 For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, Lk 5:10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men.” Lk 5:11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.
At the end of the day it is all about saving lost people. Jesus says to professional fishermen: You catch fish, now go catch men. What are you expert in? Use it to go catch people. Peter had followed Jesus for awhile but he didn’t realize who Jesus was. He didn’t understand everything about Jesus.
That is the great thing about Jesus; you don’t have to get it right all the time. You don’t have to be perfect or to believe all the right things, you just have to be trying. Peter failed because he was actively following Jesus. Jesus can deal failure but He cannot stand inactiveness. If you are going mess up, mess up trying to do something for the kingdom of God not sitting still too scared to move. Jesus cares more about your effort then He does about your perfection.
The religious leaders are all about come learn; here is what you should know. This is also true of many of our religious institutions today. Jesus is all about doing. Come do, follow me and do as I do. The primary leaders of the early church, the people who changed the world forever are not bible scholars but people who were willing to get off the butts and do something. You might think you are not a scholar or well educated so you cannot be a powerful leaders in the church. The truth is Jesus used common laborers not professional people to change the world. You don’t need great studies just a radical devotion.
Jesus does not need you to know all the right things and have their doctrine all lined out. Jesus didn’t fit with what the religious people of His day thought He would be and He certainly won’t fit with all the things we expect Him to be. When we put dedication to denomination over dedication to Jesus we make the same mistake the Pharisees did. Too many Christians care more about Jesus being what they want Him to be then they do about following Him wherever He leads. Discipleship is about trusting Jesus enough to follow Him. It is about being radical enough to fail again and again and to keep coming back to Jesus.
I want you to picture surfers out on the beach. A wave comes, they stand up on the boards and ride it. Then the wave crashes. They don’t just toss up their boards and go home: “oh well it was fun while it lasted”, they ride back out and wait for the next wave. Sometimes they fall and they can back on their board, ride back out, and wait for the next wave. Jesus is looking for surfers. He is looking for people who are willing fall but to fall in their attempt to do something for Him. Christianity is not a spectator sport, it is about getting in the game. Jesus asks you to trust Him, which means when He calls you to follow, you put down whatever you’re holding on to and you follow.
You may not know what you are being called to, you may not know you are being called so here it is: here is your calling: do something. Get out of your seats, get out of your comfort zones, and do something, do anything! I would love to be a part of a church that gave everything they had to serving the kingdom of God and failed over and over. I am not bothered by failure. I cant stand the idea of being a part of a church that is too scared to try. We to stop talking about it saying things like: I hope everyone gets saved. I hope they come to Jesus. What are you doing about it? Who me? Well what can I do? I am just a person…so what? It is time to get to work.
Look for a need, look for a place you can get involved, for something you can do and ask God for His calling. Then do it. Faithfully, consistently, continually, do it! SERVE! If you are not serving you are not following. You need to be pouring yourself out into the ministry of the kingdom of God. You need to be working not for yourself but for something that is bigger than you. If your life is about you then you are wasting it. Every moment you live for yourself and you own wants is a moment you waste that you will never get back. Christianity is not a belief system it is a lifestyle. It means getting out of the chair and doing things for Jesus and with Jesus.
Can you show me right now what you have done for Jesus in your life? Most of us work really hard to believe the right things about Him but what have we done for Him? Jesus cares more about you trying to do the things He does than He does about you believing all the right things. The disciples were wrong a lot. They had a lot of incorrect ideas about Jesus. But they followed Him faithfully with their lives. If you want to be a Christian you have to be living like Christ. So what are you doing? Jesus calls us all to serve, to commit ourselves to following Him, how are you answering the call?
